The use of agents which cause partial or total suppression or eradication of bone marrow has become an accepted part of certain procedures used to treat patients with cancers such as leukemias, lymphomas, myelomas and Hodgkin's disease as well as in the treatment of patients suffering from hematopoietic disorders such as sickle cell anemia and thalassemia. In situations where the patient is suffering from a hematopoietic disorder such as thalassemia or sickle cell anemia, bone marrow transplantation may offer the possibility of a cure. If the abnormal bone marrow of an individual suffering from sickle cell anemia or thalassemia can be eradicated and then replaced with a bone marrow that takes and is reproduced and capable of producing normal red cells with normal hemoglobin, the individual may be cured.
Multiple myeloma is a disease of abnormal plasma cell proliferation that can result in anemia, pathologic fractures, renal failure, and death. Complete eradication of the abnormal plasma cells and precursor abnormal cells that may differentiate into abnormal plasma cells can prevent the progression, reverse or even cure the disease.
Current therapy is high dose chemotherapy (with melphalan and prednisone, or combinations such as thiotepa/busulfan/cyclophosphamide) with or without total body irradiation (TBI). Treatment with melphalan 140 mg/m2 of body-surface area given intravenously can induce partial or complete remissions in about 40% of patients. However, it causes severe and sometimes irreversible myelosuppression. For example, see B. Barlogie et al., Blood, 72, 2015 (1989); (1998); D. Cunningham et al., J. Clin. Oncol., 12, 764 (1994); R. Bataille et al., New Engl. J. Med., 336, 1657 (1997).
Furthermore, when radiation is combined with other cytotoxic therapies, such as chemotherapy, the toxicity can be additive or synergistic. In addition, patients who undergo bone marrow suppression or ablation, sufficient to require either growth factor support, transfusion support or stem cell reinfusion, may encounter toxicities from the chemotherapy, from TBI, or both.
The dose of chemotherapy and radiotherapy that can be administered to an individual patient is often limited by patient age or overall health. Some patients who could benefit from high dose chemotherapy and radiotherapy do not receive it because they are considered too old or have other concomitant diseases which make them unsuitable candidates because of the non-target organ toxicity currently associated with these therapies. Higher doses of radiation may increase the percentage of tumor cells that are killed, and, with ionizing radiation, there comes a point where small increments in radiation can have a major impact on the percentage of cells killed. Regardless of the type of initial chemotherapy regimen, all patients will relapse and the five-year survival rate is usually less than 30%.
The use of complexed radionuclides for bone marrow suppression is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,209, where the use of Samarium-153 (153Sm), Gadolinium-159 (159Gd), or Holmium-166 (166Ho) complexed with a ligand selected from ethylenediaminetetramethylenephosphonic acid (EDTMP), diethylenetriaminepentamethylenephosphonic acid (DTPMP), hydroxyethylethylenediaminetrimethylenephosphonic acid (HEEDTMP), nitrilotrimethylenephosphonic acid (NTMP), or tris(2-aminoethyl)aminehexamethylenephosphonic acid (TTHMP) is disclosed. Phosphonic acid-containing chelators are selected due to their ability to target the radionuclide to the bone. J. H. Turner et al., J. Nat'l. Cancer Inst., 85, 1508 (1993), report that 153Sm-EDTMP used with melphalan, followed by bone marrow transplant, improves survival of rats inoculated with murine myeloma cells.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,882,142, and 5,059,412 are directed to a method for the suppression of bone marrow and to a composition for use in the method. The method comprises administering to a mammal in need of such treatment a bone marrow suppressing amount of at least one composition comprised of a radionuclide 153Sm, 159Gd, or 166Ho complexed with 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecanemethylenephosphonic acid as the macrocyclic chelating moiety. The method of bone marrow suppression described therein may be used in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs and/or external radiation. The compositions comprise the radionuclides in dosages comprising from about 18 to 1850 megabecquerels per kilogram of body weight of the target mammal. The amount of radioactivity delivered to the bone is necessarily lower, and was not determined.
Therefore, a continuing need exists for methodologies and agents useful for selective bone marrow suppression and/or for adequate tumor cell killing, that is, wherein the bone marrow is suppressed and/or tumor cells killed with only minimal damage to non-target soft tissues, for example, liver, urinary bladder, and kidney. There is also a need for a means of delivering high radiation doses to sites of disease in or near bone, with standard or high dose chemotherapy without increasing toxicity to non-target organs. For those situations where bone marrow support can aid in therapy or cure, it would be desirable to have a means of first selectively suppressing the abnormal or diseased bone marrow independent of, or with limited, total body irradiation.